Bakersfield college held a round table event Oct. 22, talking about the pros, cons and potential implications of Prop.50.

Speakers who led this panel were BC professors Joe Saldivar, Ariel Dyer, Matthew Maddex, Javier Llamas and Reggie Williams. They informed students and other audience members of what this proposition is and why this special election is taking place.

According to the California Voting Guide, it summarizes Prop. 50 as follows. “Requires temporary use of new congressional district maps through 2030. Directs independent Citizens Redistricting Commission to resume enacting congressional district maps in 2031.”

Most recently, Texas decided on redistricting their state in order to gain more republican seats in the Senate. The reason this decision by Texas has caused so much attention is that the full 10 years in which most States wait to redistrict has not been reached. This decision in Texas has led California, as well as other states, to determine whether or not they will  redistrict as well.

Professor Llamas stated, “In Texas and I think it’s Missouri as they mentioned, they don’t have to ask permission; they can do this again whenever they want. Whereas in California, I’m not saying yes or no by the way, here in California we have to ask permission and our permission only goes for five years.”

Major topics that were brought up for the debate for this proposition were in what ways this would not only affect the state of California itself but other states as well. Topics brought up surrounding the decision of Prop. 50 revolved mainly around the ideas of political power, fairness and race and if this is seen essentially as an emergency decision.

Although California is proposing this as a way to tip some fairness to the scale, summed up into simpler terms at Wednesday’s panel it was described by one of the panelists as “project fuc* Trump”.

The panel also discussed other possible fallout such as other states  gerrymandering to meet the political leanings of their representatives.